LANCASTER, Ohio — A firearms instructor accidentally shot a student while teaching a gun-safety class on Saturday in Fairfield County to people seeking permits to carry concealed weapons.Terry J. Dunlap Sr., who runs a shooting range and training center at 6995 Coonpath Rd. near Lancaster, was demonstrating a handgun when he fired a .38-caliber bullet that ricocheted off a desk and into student Michael Piemonte’s right arm.

So i cruise around Fark as a feed, and yes, internet, yes comments, whatever, but I feel this is important to repost. Especially since most Muricans are not getting a sense of what is actually happening over there. Apologies ahead of time for the length of the quote.

My mother is in Egypt and wrote me this email this morning of her observations:

As you suggested, I will try to describe my perspective regarding what is going on in Egypt at the present time...

Yesterday was a sad and violent day in the history of the country. Things started out positively by what appeared to be a breakup of the sit ins.... tear gas and water canons, but no major loss of life.... but the situation quickly deteriorated into chaos and violence all around the country. I spent the day watching the various news agencies report on the events and also listening to messages and phone calls from friends and acquaintances of Nana, and her son Magd. They were receiving updates from various locations around Cairo and other cities and towns in Egypt.

The news agencies in the western media insist on,portraying the sit ins as peaceful demonstrations, whereas the images on local tv channels today and over the past couple of weeks have shown the brotherhood to be armed and violent... People who disagreed with them , and lived to tell about it, were tortured in most inhumane ways... Women were told it was their religious duty to have sex with men they did not know in the name of their religious battle ... Those who refused were raped or killed. Children were bussed in, collected from orphanages, duped into thinking they are going to get new clothes for the Eid .. Instead they were paraded holding their own funeral attire, with banners declaring them as future martyrs..the atrocities are too numerous to mention here, but the images I saw, and the stories I heard from acquaintances living in the neighborhood of the sit ins reveal a group of thugs and extremists that define the word "terrorists". I am not saying that all those who were there were terrorists. There were many people who believed they were there to defend their religion and many many very poor people who were happy to get money, free food and shelter for a month...

I don't know why the western position is to reach a negotiated settlement... Would they negotiate with terrorists,? Worse, would you include them in any current or future government? These were people who have pending espionage and criminal cases against them since before the revolution... They wanted to divide and sell off parts of Egypt for their and the brotherhood's gain. They cared only for their clan and not for their country or fellow citizens who they branded as atheists and non Muslims ( a great insult to the average Egyptian, who values faith above all). On tv, I heard their leader state that the attacks on the outposts in the Sinai would stop the instant the new government released and reinstated Morsi... They have used arms smuggled from Lybia and Hammas to kill their own people. They opened the borders to extremists from other countries to join the fight in the name of Islam!

What I believe the west do not understand is that the brotherhood is an organization created in the shadows. It preaches a form of repressive and extreme Islam. And wants to impose its views not only in Egypt, but all over the world, by whatever means and at all costs.. They are extremely dangerous and very adaptable. They will make a bargain with the devil if it leads to eventual domination and control.What happened yesterday, from burning churches, government offices and police stations was their attempt to stir up religious divisions between Christians and Moslems. They started fires everywhere to overwhelm the authorities and create chaos. They want to create the illusion of civil war and portray the country as a divided broken , and in need of foreign intervention.

What the west does not see or report on is the intense hatred most Egyptians have for the brotherhood. Even those who voted for them have come out publicly and denounced them.. In neighborhoods and villages, the residents have thwarted many of the brotherhood's efforts to control them. They tried to hide inside the holy Azhar Mosque, but were stopped by the people of the neighborhood... There are many stories of Moslems helping Christians defend churches or put out fires, once started... I hope their attempt to incite violence and division fails... I believe that what they are doing is galvanizing the masses against them . At least that is my hope.

I am afraid that their attacks may increase in the next weeks and months. I hope the country can stand together to defend itself against that evil onslaught. My hope is that the west will come to see that there is more to democracy than a vote .... and that the will of the people will eventually triumph above all pretenses of law and legitimacy. I believe that moving forward to reinstate a civilian government will help reinforce that view.

I still am cautiously optimistic about the future, although I am aware of the massive risks and dangers that lie ahead.

I hope this gives you a different perspective to what you see in the media where you are.

Please feel free to share this with whoever you think might be interested.

The always entertaining Adam Curtis wrote a fascinating essay about the strange co-dependent relationship of Hamas, the Israeli right and the Muslim Brotherhood (and touched on the brotherhood's formation and early years) a few months ago - which may give a bit of insight into why everything is going to shit there.

The NYTimes live blog (the Lede) did a really good job yesterday at conveying just how terrifying shit is over there right now, including covering the way the press is being treated during the raids.

Obviously the liveblogging can't capture everything, but this feature is one of my preferred ways of getting news during major crises now. I was following it like mad during the Boston marathon bombing/aftermath.

In a new study, Borjigin discovered that rats show an unexpected pattern of brain activity immediately after cardiac arrest. With neither breath nor heartbeats, these rodents were clinically dead but for at least 30 seconds, their brains showed several signals of conscious thought, and strong signals to boot. This suggests that our final journey into permanent unconsciousness may actually involve a brief state of heightened consciousness.

The Children's HIV Association surveyed 19 doctors and health professionals working with babies and children in England; its members had reported hearing anecdotal evidence of HIV patients deciding to stop taking their anti-retroviral drugs because their pastors had told them to do so.Among 10 doctors who said they had encountered the problem in the last five years, 29 of their patients had reported being put under pressure to stop taking medicine and at least 11 had done so.

The reason for my departure is 100% within my ability to control. You see, earlier today, I committed suicide. I created a web-site to deal with the many questions a person would rightfully have. It’s called martinmanleylifeanddeath.com. It went live today. In my opinion, there is no question which you could conceivably ask that I have left unanswered on that site. My goal with this post is closure for SIR.

Ironically, he did not update his bio.

Edit: Yahoo is apparently blocking access to the webpages. They should not do that.

Second edit: The second irony is in finding this site a few days after learning that a dear friend had shot himself. He didn't even scribble a note.

I support what happened on the 30th of June and saw that Morsi was unfit to be president but that doesn’t deny the fact that I believe there needs to be a thorough investigation into the events of the Republic Guard; that I’d like to know how long the Islamists TV channels will be closed; and that I find the private media to be full of discrimination and inciting rhetoric.

No, no: you’re being soft! Keep your human rights to yourself. These people can only be dealt with violently. We have to purge the country of these people.

The above is a reflection of the state of many who are on a ‘victory high’ - or so they imagine themselves to be. The fascist nature of those people is no different than that of the Islamists who think that their enemies’ disappearance off this planet would be a victory for the religion of God. But those on this ‘victory high’ consider themselves to be different; they justify their fascism for the “good of the country.” These people with their liberal values and reverence for freedom differ very little from Khaled Abdullah [a radical preacher], the “religious man” who was infamous for his favorite quote: “May God relieve us of you and your likes (the liberals).”